Madden Cards

There are 281 total Madden Cards this time around. Player cards give that player a boost for a specified amount of time (based on the type of card--bronze, silver or gold). Playing a Coach card boosts your team awareness for a specified amount of time. Stadium Cards unlock stadia for exhibition mode. Historic Team cards open those squads for exhibition, and Cheerleader/Pump Up Crowd Cards give your team a temporary boost. Here are the card categories, and how to gain the locked Cards within each:

Player Cards: #1-155
The following cards are unlocked by completing Mini-Camp challenges (the rest can be gotten by purchasing packs of Cards with Tokens):

Cheat Cards #188-219
Cheat Cards, when played, produce special game conditions for a specific amount of time, based on whether they are Bronze, Silver or Gold. Certain ones need to be unlock via Mini-Camp drills. They are:

#195: Unlock by getting gold in the Ground Attack drill.
#197: Unlock by getting gold in the Clutch Kicking drill.
#199: Unlock by getting gold in the Swat Ball drill.
#208: Unlock by getting gold in the Pocket Presence drill.
#209: Unlock by getting gold in the Trench Fight drill.
#210: Unlock by getting gold in the Precision Passing drill.
#211: Unlock by getting gold in the Coffin Corner drill.

Stadium Cards: #220-224
Unlock these Cards, and you'll unlock the stadiums, and make them available for exhibition games.

Historic Team Cards: #225-249
Unlock these Cards to make the Historic Teams available at the team select screen.

Cheerleader/Pump Up Crowd Cards: #250-281
These are unlocked by completing each team's Situation in Mini-Camp mode, with the exception of these teams:

Mini-Camp Skill Levels

Complete a challenge in Mini-Camp to open that same skill challenge on the higher difficulty setting.

Madden Card Codes

To enter these codes, go to My Madden at the menu, select My Madden, then go to Madden Codes. Enter the case-sensitive code to unlock the corresponding Card:

P67E1I: TJ Duckett (Gold)
A49H6R: Michael Vick (Gold)

Cheerleader and Pump Up Crowd Cards

Successfully complete the "Game Situation" challenges in mini-camp mode. The Cheerleader or Pump Up Crowd Cards for the team used will be unlocked.

Getting good players

In order to get a team that will last three to four years of dominance, must start with a team with lots of long contracts in place (for example, the Lions). They have four or six, six and seven year contracts on the good rookies. Trade for other players with long contracts. The first person you need to trade is the tight end that makes $12 million a year. Kellen Winslow from the Browns makes a good replacement. Make sure to not build too good of a roster, as your players have personalities and will get upset if they do not start, get the ball, etc. However, a decent roll playing team with outstanding players at these positions will take it every time. QB, HB, WR, or a second WR will not hurt. With DE/DT OLB/MLB CB SS/FS, 80-85 on every other player is more than sufficient. Also, if you trade these players from the rosters before your franchise, you can then edit them to make them better. However, be careful not to go too high on all of them, as they will all want more money and cause major backroom problems.

Madden Cards And Game Cheats

Get a gold rank in any event on the All Pro, Pro and Rookie levels in mini-camp mode.

Extra Push In Tackles

When you are a defender about to give a head-on-collision to the runner, press the Right Analog-stick Down to give extra push in your tackles, increasing the chance of a fumble.

Easy Tackles

You can get numerous easy tackles with your MLB by using him during your kickoffs. Go to coaching strategies and find 'Kickoff'. Assign the third player from the left to be your MLB. Assign the first two players on the left as very slow CBs or FSs. When you kick off, kick the ball to the left side where your MLB is assigned. If you do not kick it too deeply, your MLB will be the first one downfield and will go unblocked into the return man. If you have the roster space and some money, create a CB and FS and make all of their attributes zeros. You should have no trouble signing them to a contract. You can then use them on your kickoff squad and they will almost never make it downfield. With this trick, in addition to the tackles your MLB gets during the game, he will get one for every kickoff as well.

Sign Any Player To Low Salary Contract

This trick will allow you to sign any player, no matter how big their default salary is, to a three year low-salary contract. You must do this before starting a franchise. First, edit the player's attributes from whatever they are currently down so that their overall rating is exactly 75. Depending on the position, you should be able to achieve this by simply lowering one or sometimes two of their attributes. Make sure to make a note what the original rating was so you can store the value later. Once all players you are editing are at an overall rating of 75, release the players to free agency. After releasing each player (you may have to sign some 'no-name' players to your roster to maintain roster requirements, but you can release those temporary players later), back out of the roster management screen to the main menu. Choose the option to 'Continue without saving' (this may not be necessary). Reenter the roster management screen and select 'Free Agents.' Go to whichever team you want to sign the players to and start looking for your players. You should notice that their new requested salaries and contract lengths will be for three years at a very low salary (depending on the position). Once you have signed all of your players back (and released the temporary players), go back to editing the players and return them to the original ratings. According to the manual, your players will become upset if they feel they are being underpaid for how good they are performing -- you will more than likely have to re-sign some contracts throughout the year, but with the cap room you will save.

Faster Player Improvement

Before playing under the All-Pro or All-Madden difficulty settings, play your franchise under the Rookie or Pro levels so you can increase stats for your players easily. This will give them more attribute upgrades throughout the season. The more yards your receivers or running backs get, the more points their ratings will increase.

Increased Attendance In Franchise Mode

Before playing a home game, enter the 'Owner's' menu and set your 'Advertising' as high as possible. After you play your game, return to the 'Owner's' menu and set 'Advertising' to zero, then simulate the rest of the games for that week. You will not be charged for the advertising, but your attendance will be higher. Do this before every home game to keep your attendance high without paying extra.